Topic description and stories

Artist Concept of an Early Earth

Seawater could have provided phosphorous required for emerging life

27 Sep 2022

The problem of how phosphorus became a universal ingredient for life on Earth may have been solved by researchers from the University of Cambridge...

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Shaking the dinosaur family tree: how did ‘bird-hipped’ dinosaurs evolve?

21 Sep 2022

Researchers have conducted a new analysis of the origins of ‘bird-hipped’ dinosaurs – the group which includes iconic species such as Triceratops –...

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Young boy making his way through a dense forest of trees and cow parsley. He stands out in the green in his bright red jumper.

Developmental dyslexia essential to human adaptive success, study argues

24 Jun 2022

Researchers say people with Developmental Dyslexia have specific strengths relating to exploring the unknown that have contributed to the successful...

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Illustration of Spinosaurus hunting underwater

Dense bones allowed Spinosaurus to hunt underwater

23 Mar 2022

Its close cousin Baryonyx probably swam too, but Suchomimus might have waded like a heron.

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Artists’s impression of the rocky super-Earth HD 85512 b

Cambridge launches new Leverhulme Centre for Life in the Universe

10 Jan 2022

With a £10 million grant awarded by the Leverhulme Trust , the University of Cambridge is to establish a new research centre dedicated to exploring...

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Millipedes ‘as big as cars’ once roamed England

21 Dec 2021

The largest-ever fossil of a giant millipede – as big as a car – has been found on a beach in the north of England.

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Chimpanzee

Tree-dwelling mammals survived after asteroid strike destroyed forests

14 Oct 2021

An asteroid strike 66 million years ago wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs and devastated the Earth’s forests, but tree-dwelling ancestors of primates...

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Wild Kea, New Zealand

Going up: birds and mammals evolve faster if their home is rising

02 Sep 2021

The rise and fall of Earth’s land surface over the last three million years shaped the evolution of birds and mammals, a new study has found, with...

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Human fossil skulls and thigh bones

Climate changed the size of our bodies and, to some extent, our brains

08 Jul 2021

The average body size of humans has fluctuated significantly over the last million years and is strongly linked to temperature. Colder, harsher...

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Site of the Toba supereruption

Early humans were sheltered from worst effects of volcanic supereruption

05 Jul 2021

A massive volcanic eruption in Indonesia about 74,000 years ago likely caused severe climate disruption in many areas of the globe, but early human...

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Patient with cystic fibrosis

Ability of multi-drug resistant infection to evolve within cystic fibrosis patients highlights need for rapid treatment

29 Apr 2021

Scientists have been able to track how a multi-drug resistant organism is able to evolve and spread widely among cystic fibrosis patients – showing...

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New starfish-like fossil reveals evolution in action

20 Jan 2021

Researchers from the University of Cambridge have discovered a fossil of the earliest starfish-like animal, which helps us understand the origins of...

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